Ask diehard comic fans to name the “greatest” writers in comics, and you’ll generally get a predictable list: Alan Moore. Grant Morrison. Chris Claremont. Brian Michael Bendis. Frank Miller.
One name you won’t usually hear is Roger Stern.
Why? Because unlike the “recognized” greats, Roger Stern never once tried to reinvent the superhero genre. He doesn’t wax philosophical. He doesn’t question the art form or its meaning in a larger sense. He doesn’t create dark, heavy universes with overt political messages or implicit moral agendas. He just tells great stories. He isn’t quirky like Steve Gerber. He isn’t epic like Jim Starlin. He isn’t deep or heavy. He’s happy to play with corporate characters and make them (gasp!) fun, interesting, and crisp. His work focuses on character, not mood. In this way, he’s a lot like other underappreciated “big two” writers like Dan Slott or Kelley Sue DeConnick
And he’s written just about everything, with seminal 1980s runs on Spider-Man, Captain America, The Avengers, and Doctor Strange—all of which are pretty much accepted as representing some of the best stories ever told in those comic titles—and worked with just about every big artist of the 1980s, including Michael Golden, Paul Smith, John Byrne, Mike Mignola, John Buscema, and, of course, John Romita Jr.
Picking my #1 favorite Stern story is easy. There’s a clear winner. But picking a top ten–and cutting it off at ten–is impossible. After all, it was Roger Stern’s run (his entire run) on Peter Parker and Amazing Spider-Man that really cemented my fanboy status. I could pick ten stories from those runs alone. But his Avengers run was one of the top three of all time. And his Doctor Strange work is one of a few Doc Strange runs worth reading. Pretty much ever. He also wrote the first Avengers vs. X-Men comic—long before the “event” was even a concept.
And then of course there was that thing he did where helped kill the most well-known superhero of all time and made the front page of most major newspapers.
So I don’t know how I”m going to keep it to ten, but I’m gonna try…
Actually, the very first “Avengers Versus X-Men” clashes were in ‘X-Men’#9 ( 1964 ) and ‘Avengers’#53, ( 1968 ). I think you are being a little hard on the ‘Dr. Strange’ series- I get that it’s not everybody’s cup of Joe, ( like ‘Batman’, ‘Spider-Man’, ‘X-Men’, ‘Avengers’, etc., ) but nevertheless, Marvel’s ‘Dr. Strange’ series has given the world some seriously deep and mind-expanding literature. Sort-of the “Preacher” of it’s day. I wish I could have financially afforded to follow all of Dr. Strange’s adventures from the Sixties through the Eighties, but, in those days, the amounts of time and money I had to spend on comics in those days were not as great as from the Nineties to the present. So, my exposure to ‘Dr. Strange’ is not as extensive as my exposure to, say, Captain America or the X-Men. I regret it, but it is what it is. Being a mild Biblio-scholar, the Good Book tells us that all “good” magic comes straight from God, ( for instance, the conclusion of ‘Dr.Strange’#14- “The Tomb of Dr. Strange” ) and all “bad” magic comes from Satan and Hell. ( extended into comics, this would include Satannish, Thog, Mephisto, Dormammu, Trigon, and the Hellstrom siblings, Daimon and Satana ) This means that the politics of the ‘Dr. Strange’ character and series walks a very slim tightrope that Marvel’s various “Son of Satan” series have failed to do, so I have always been able to understand why any comics consumer would choose to avoid it. ( I have never seen or read “The Exorcist”- and never will- for the same reason ) So- you’re being a little hard on an extremely excellent product of Marvel Comics that the vast majority of the comics reading market has chosen to pass on, for whatever their reasons. Just my 411.
Ok..Grant never treated Superman as a god that steps over humans. If you think that you do not fuckong understand Superman.
OK. You may be right. At a minimum, I’m sure my little blurb is an oversimplication of a very complicated writer.